Chapter 2
Torn away. No warning. One minute he's here, the next...
Lukas awoke flat on his back. His vision blurred, he felt the cold stone against his body. Half-unconscious sill, he slowly rose to a sitting position. He braced himself with his arms behind him. He slowly re-opened his eyes to see the blur disappear. But what replaced it was quite worse. He sat alone on the rocky horizon. Large snowy mountains boxed him in on three sides. The other, was a wide plain of rolling hills. It seemed to spread for miles in just that one direction. A large grassy plain. No sign of human life all round. When Lukas went to sleep, it was at his desk in science class. Not on top of a large, rocky outcrop. He felt a small bulge in his pocket, noticing it, but otherwise ignoring it. He still needed to wake up fully before he could take in any of what he was seeing and feeling. The bulge moved slightly and he heard a couple clinks moving away from him down the hill. When he looked over, a small object rolled down the hillside. It skittered and bounced on the rocky slope, eventually getting caught in a larger rock. Lukas, now awake, and quite curious, slowly made his way down to the object. Half the time he walked, the rest he sat down and let gravity slide him down. This was much faster than trying to keep his balance. When he got down to where the object had stopped, he nearly fell on top of it. He rolled onto his side and used the boulder to stand him up. He bent down and picked up the strange object, which he knew now was metal. It was oddly shaped like an upside down triangle with two littler triangles coming out each side. It was very perplexing. It had a round ring of gold in the center of the triangle, which encompassed a small square screen. Below the circle was a couple buttons, oddly arranged like puzzle pieces, neatly fitting into one another. He looked over the device a couple times and then quickly stuffed it back into his pocket. Now, to figure out where he was.
~*~*~
The train sped through a mountainside tunnel at breakneck speed. Josh, like Sarah and Tara, was pinned to his seat. Flashes of oddly colored light came through the windows. Josh just assumed they were lights on the tunnel walls. Seeing as how it was the only thing his body could let him do, thoughts raced through his mind. Where was he going? What awaited him on the other side of this tunnel? He could only wait and see. As soon as this last thought ran through his head, the train shot from the tunnel into broad daylight. But something was odd. The light, it was too...clean. The light was fresh and bright. No clouds or pollution. Just bright blue sky. Not even the sun. Not anywhere in the sky, yet the light kept shining. The grass on either side of the tracks was bright green, almost glowing. Josh looked through the window at the back of the car. The mountainside they had just passed through was nowhere to be seen, just more rolling hills of bright green grass. This didn't make any sense. Tara and Sara both got out of their seats and stared through the windows.
~*~*~
This part of the world was deactivated long ago. Since then, it has begun to erode and degrade. It was a barren wasteland now. The only structure left standing was a large stone temple. The only entrance was up at the very top, with a tall, steep staircase leading up to it. The steps, like the walls, were cracked and broken. It was a wonder that it still stood; resisting the lack of energy that had begun to delete the surrounding landscape.
Lukas had long ago decided to follow the long path set before him by the rolling hills of bright green grass. As he made his way towards the strange tower he soon saw on the horizon, the land drastically changed. The grass withered and died, as the stony ground grew flat and cracked. Large, sharp fractures jutted upwards towards the now dark and stormy sky. Lukas, weary from his journey, walked slowly through the field of stone. Not only to catch his breath, but to watch out for any dangers. Any number of things could be hiding just around the next fracture. He still did not know where he was or why he was there, but he did know that if he could get tired, he could just as easily get hurt or even killed. He felt quite alone now. He hadn't seen a single sign of life since he left school, somehow. But this first sign was a big one. It loomed over him, reaching to the sky and beyond. It would be a long climb to the top, not to mention hard, with the size of the steps. Hopefully, this would bring Lukas the answers about where he is. And possibly, the way home.
Lukas walked up to the steps. They were a lot larger than he first thought. He breathed out a large sigh. Hesitantly, he slowly began to pull himself up the first step.
~*~*~
The last subroutine was programmed into him hours ago. I gave him a name. I gave him a personality. No free will but to fight. Fight and destroy. I already let him loose on the Digital world. I sat back in my chair, marveling at my creation. In my mind, it was truly beautiful. Not a single Digimon was powerful enough to stop him. But, I never thought about humans. Not until an alarm went off on my computer. I leaned forward attentively as a new window popped up on my screen. Ones and Zeros scrolled by my eyes in a new pattern. I watched as the numbers faded and an image appeared. It was of an old dilapidated looking temple surrounded by a barren wasteland. My temple. On the steps, about halfway up, was a boy. A human boy. He was sitting on the edge of the step catching his breath. How did a human get into the Digital world? A human would need a Digivice to get there. I don't even create them. The world itself creates them. Mine was sent to me in an email. Don't ask how. With it, I was able to create the starting mold of the Digital world and the Digimon. It would seem a Digivice is the Digital world's way of using up excess energy, because whenever a Digivice is made, there is a spike of energy for quite some time before. I have made a point of keeping track off all new Digivices...my own way. I imprison them in stone before they can find a suitable Tamer. I put them all in that Temple. No! That's how he's there, he stole a Digivice from me! I need to get it back. By myself.
~*~*~
Lukas had made it to the top of the steps. Weary and heaving for breath, he stood at the top with his hands on his knees. He slowly looked up, into the room open in front of him. It was dark, but the light pouring in form the doorway where he stood slimly illuminated it. The light shone on a waist high pedestal in the center of the room. As Lukas approached it, it seemed to grow quite large around, very wide. On the surface were five lines surrounded by an engraved circle, forming a pentagram. At each point of the star, except for one, were strange unique drawings. They looked quite alien to Lukas. For a second, he thought about how he got here: 'maybe aliens abducted me from school. And this is their home planet where their keeping me for study.' As Lukas shrugged of this ridiculous thought, he continued observing the pedestal. At the far-left point on the star, was a sort of indent. About the same size as the drawings, but something was different, more familiar. Than the thought hit him. He quickly pulled out the metal device he found earlier. He flipped it over and over, rotating it to see if it fit. Then he found that the indent looked to fit the back of the device. Without thinking about it, Lukas slowly went to place it in the pedestal. He was actually hoping that it would give him some answers. Suddenly, just before the metal touched the cold stone, Lukas and the device were blown back, away from the pedestal. He was flung backwards. He slammed hard against the wall and slid down to the floor. His body went limp and slumped into a crumpled mess on the floor. Lukas lay there for a second, barely conscious. What hit him? What hit him? The same question repeated over and over in his head. It drove him to pull himself up and find out. He braced himself with his arms and lifted his head. When his eyes opened and the blur cleared, he saw a figure standing in-between him and the pedestal. From where Lukas lay he, or it, looked very tall and menacing.
"You, don't touch that. Your hands are unclean, thief." The voice seemed to come not only from the figure, but also from the room itself. Lukas looked around slightly trying to puzzle this out.
"Wha.." The only sound Lukas could force his throat to make. To Lukas, it seemed quite appropriate, if not vague after he heard himself say it.
"You think you can steal from this world and return to the scene unscathed? Steal from me? Impudence. You shall learn your lesson." The figure stepped out from the shadows and into the light, still pouring in from the doorway. It was a boy, not even seventeen years old from the looks of it. He had long, scruffy blond hair and dark, penetrating eyes. His dark shirt came up to his chin, covering his neck, and the sleeves down to his knuckles. He raised his left arm up to point at Lukas, he opened his palm to him and as he did so, Lukas was pinned back against the wall. The boy raised his hand higher in the air, raising Lukas up the wall. He dropped Lukas down to the floor again. The boy's arm fell slightly backwards when he brought it back down, and as it did so, Lukas noticed that his fingertips actually passed through the solid stone pedestal. When his hand came back out, it was slightly blurred and off-colored, like when you get a bad TV connection. The boy didn't seem to notice, but Lukas sure did. The boy was just an illusion, a sort of hologram or projection. But, how was a hologram able to throw a real human boy across a room. Lukas then got a stupid idea, or at least it seemed stupid. He discretely looked around for the metal device and noticed it was very close to his right arm. The boy began to pace in slow circles around the pedestal.
"Now, how shall I kill you? Slow and painful? Or how about quick and painful? Sorry. No painless ways out this time sonny-boy." Lukas waited until the boy was not looking and quietly grabbed the device. He didn't know why, but he just knew he had to do it. He got up to his feet as quickly as he could, making sure not to make too much noise. He began to walk towards the pedestal when the boy noticed.
He reached out his arm to blow him back, but Lukas was ready this time. He lowered his center of gravity and braced his knees. The force bent him backwards, but he did not move. Lukas ran forward with all his energy. "No! You can't!" The boy shouted, trying to stop Lukas, but he ignored him. He blocked the pedestal, but it was useless. Lukas ran right into the hologram and reached his arm through it. He slammed the device down into the hole in the pedestal. "No!" The boy screamed and the hologram exploded into a million points of light that quickly dissolved.
The ground beneath Lukas' feet began to shake. It pushed Lukas up against the pedestal, and he held on to stay on his feet. He looked down and saw that the drawings on the pedestal were beginning to glow brighter and brighter. The glowing signs began to give off a force similar to what the boy had used. It blew Lukas back onto the floor where from there he saw the glowing get even brighter. The glowing then subsided and only the outlines on the stone were glowing. The rumbling subsided as well and as suddenly as the rumbling stopped, tall beams of light shot from the signs and through the roof. The beams of light were so bright Lukas couldn't look. Along with the light came a high pitched squealing noise. It hurt Lukas' ears to just sit there. It didn't last long though, both the noise and the light subsided within a few seconds.
When Lukas opened his eyes, everything was the way it was before. The roof still intact and the only light was coming from the open doorway. But he was still there, in this strange world. It didn't get him anywhere. Now his eyes and ears hurt but he didn't get anything that could help him. Lukas pulled himself to his feet. "Jeez, I really should work on not getting pushed around so much" he thought.
He walked back towards the pedestal, but something was wrong. It was blank. Nothing was on the face of the pedestal, but the device he put into it sat on top of it in the center. Not a single mark or dent was in the stone. It had all disappeared in the light. Lukas picked up the device and looked at it sitting in the palm of his hand. The screen in the center of the device lit up. A voice began to speak to Lukas through the device.
"Lukas Nonaki, you have arrived in the Digital world. Welcome. You have just released the Digivices, one of which you are now holding. This is your Digivice. It will guide you through this world and help you retrieve your partner." The vice was soft and feminine.
Lukas was completely beside himself when he heard this. He knew immediately it would take some time to learn what she meant. He barely even knew what was going on, or what he was in store for.
Torn away. No warning. One minute he's here, the next...
Lukas awoke flat on his back. His vision blurred, he felt the cold stone against his body. Half-unconscious sill, he slowly rose to a sitting position. He braced himself with his arms behind him. He slowly re-opened his eyes to see the blur disappear. But what replaced it was quite worse. He sat alone on the rocky horizon. Large snowy mountains boxed him in on three sides. The other, was a wide plain of rolling hills. It seemed to spread for miles in just that one direction. A large grassy plain. No sign of human life all round. When Lukas went to sleep, it was at his desk in science class. Not on top of a large, rocky outcrop. He felt a small bulge in his pocket, noticing it, but otherwise ignoring it. He still needed to wake up fully before he could take in any of what he was seeing and feeling. The bulge moved slightly and he heard a couple clinks moving away from him down the hill. When he looked over, a small object rolled down the hillside. It skittered and bounced on the rocky slope, eventually getting caught in a larger rock. Lukas, now awake, and quite curious, slowly made his way down to the object. Half the time he walked, the rest he sat down and let gravity slide him down. This was much faster than trying to keep his balance. When he got down to where the object had stopped, he nearly fell on top of it. He rolled onto his side and used the boulder to stand him up. He bent down and picked up the strange object, which he knew now was metal. It was oddly shaped like an upside down triangle with two littler triangles coming out each side. It was very perplexing. It had a round ring of gold in the center of the triangle, which encompassed a small square screen. Below the circle was a couple buttons, oddly arranged like puzzle pieces, neatly fitting into one another. He looked over the device a couple times and then quickly stuffed it back into his pocket. Now, to figure out where he was.
~*~*~
The train sped through a mountainside tunnel at breakneck speed. Josh, like Sarah and Tara, was pinned to his seat. Flashes of oddly colored light came through the windows. Josh just assumed they were lights on the tunnel walls. Seeing as how it was the only thing his body could let him do, thoughts raced through his mind. Where was he going? What awaited him on the other side of this tunnel? He could only wait and see. As soon as this last thought ran through his head, the train shot from the tunnel into broad daylight. But something was odd. The light, it was too...clean. The light was fresh and bright. No clouds or pollution. Just bright blue sky. Not even the sun. Not anywhere in the sky, yet the light kept shining. The grass on either side of the tracks was bright green, almost glowing. Josh looked through the window at the back of the car. The mountainside they had just passed through was nowhere to be seen, just more rolling hills of bright green grass. This didn't make any sense. Tara and Sara both got out of their seats and stared through the windows.
~*~*~
This part of the world was deactivated long ago. Since then, it has begun to erode and degrade. It was a barren wasteland now. The only structure left standing was a large stone temple. The only entrance was up at the very top, with a tall, steep staircase leading up to it. The steps, like the walls, were cracked and broken. It was a wonder that it still stood; resisting the lack of energy that had begun to delete the surrounding landscape.
Lukas had long ago decided to follow the long path set before him by the rolling hills of bright green grass. As he made his way towards the strange tower he soon saw on the horizon, the land drastically changed. The grass withered and died, as the stony ground grew flat and cracked. Large, sharp fractures jutted upwards towards the now dark and stormy sky. Lukas, weary from his journey, walked slowly through the field of stone. Not only to catch his breath, but to watch out for any dangers. Any number of things could be hiding just around the next fracture. He still did not know where he was or why he was there, but he did know that if he could get tired, he could just as easily get hurt or even killed. He felt quite alone now. He hadn't seen a single sign of life since he left school, somehow. But this first sign was a big one. It loomed over him, reaching to the sky and beyond. It would be a long climb to the top, not to mention hard, with the size of the steps. Hopefully, this would bring Lukas the answers about where he is. And possibly, the way home.
Lukas walked up to the steps. They were a lot larger than he first thought. He breathed out a large sigh. Hesitantly, he slowly began to pull himself up the first step.
~*~*~
The last subroutine was programmed into him hours ago. I gave him a name. I gave him a personality. No free will but to fight. Fight and destroy. I already let him loose on the Digital world. I sat back in my chair, marveling at my creation. In my mind, it was truly beautiful. Not a single Digimon was powerful enough to stop him. But, I never thought about humans. Not until an alarm went off on my computer. I leaned forward attentively as a new window popped up on my screen. Ones and Zeros scrolled by my eyes in a new pattern. I watched as the numbers faded and an image appeared. It was of an old dilapidated looking temple surrounded by a barren wasteland. My temple. On the steps, about halfway up, was a boy. A human boy. He was sitting on the edge of the step catching his breath. How did a human get into the Digital world? A human would need a Digivice to get there. I don't even create them. The world itself creates them. Mine was sent to me in an email. Don't ask how. With it, I was able to create the starting mold of the Digital world and the Digimon. It would seem a Digivice is the Digital world's way of using up excess energy, because whenever a Digivice is made, there is a spike of energy for quite some time before. I have made a point of keeping track off all new Digivices...my own way. I imprison them in stone before they can find a suitable Tamer. I put them all in that Temple. No! That's how he's there, he stole a Digivice from me! I need to get it back. By myself.
~*~*~
Lukas had made it to the top of the steps. Weary and heaving for breath, he stood at the top with his hands on his knees. He slowly looked up, into the room open in front of him. It was dark, but the light pouring in form the doorway where he stood slimly illuminated it. The light shone on a waist high pedestal in the center of the room. As Lukas approached it, it seemed to grow quite large around, very wide. On the surface were five lines surrounded by an engraved circle, forming a pentagram. At each point of the star, except for one, were strange unique drawings. They looked quite alien to Lukas. For a second, he thought about how he got here: 'maybe aliens abducted me from school. And this is their home planet where their keeping me for study.' As Lukas shrugged of this ridiculous thought, he continued observing the pedestal. At the far-left point on the star, was a sort of indent. About the same size as the drawings, but something was different, more familiar. Than the thought hit him. He quickly pulled out the metal device he found earlier. He flipped it over and over, rotating it to see if it fit. Then he found that the indent looked to fit the back of the device. Without thinking about it, Lukas slowly went to place it in the pedestal. He was actually hoping that it would give him some answers. Suddenly, just before the metal touched the cold stone, Lukas and the device were blown back, away from the pedestal. He was flung backwards. He slammed hard against the wall and slid down to the floor. His body went limp and slumped into a crumpled mess on the floor. Lukas lay there for a second, barely conscious. What hit him? What hit him? The same question repeated over and over in his head. It drove him to pull himself up and find out. He braced himself with his arms and lifted his head. When his eyes opened and the blur cleared, he saw a figure standing in-between him and the pedestal. From where Lukas lay he, or it, looked very tall and menacing.
"You, don't touch that. Your hands are unclean, thief." The voice seemed to come not only from the figure, but also from the room itself. Lukas looked around slightly trying to puzzle this out.
"Wha.." The only sound Lukas could force his throat to make. To Lukas, it seemed quite appropriate, if not vague after he heard himself say it.
"You think you can steal from this world and return to the scene unscathed? Steal from me? Impudence. You shall learn your lesson." The figure stepped out from the shadows and into the light, still pouring in from the doorway. It was a boy, not even seventeen years old from the looks of it. He had long, scruffy blond hair and dark, penetrating eyes. His dark shirt came up to his chin, covering his neck, and the sleeves down to his knuckles. He raised his left arm up to point at Lukas, he opened his palm to him and as he did so, Lukas was pinned back against the wall. The boy raised his hand higher in the air, raising Lukas up the wall. He dropped Lukas down to the floor again. The boy's arm fell slightly backwards when he brought it back down, and as it did so, Lukas noticed that his fingertips actually passed through the solid stone pedestal. When his hand came back out, it was slightly blurred and off-colored, like when you get a bad TV connection. The boy didn't seem to notice, but Lukas sure did. The boy was just an illusion, a sort of hologram or projection. But, how was a hologram able to throw a real human boy across a room. Lukas then got a stupid idea, or at least it seemed stupid. He discretely looked around for the metal device and noticed it was very close to his right arm. The boy began to pace in slow circles around the pedestal.
"Now, how shall I kill you? Slow and painful? Or how about quick and painful? Sorry. No painless ways out this time sonny-boy." Lukas waited until the boy was not looking and quietly grabbed the device. He didn't know why, but he just knew he had to do it. He got up to his feet as quickly as he could, making sure not to make too much noise. He began to walk towards the pedestal when the boy noticed.
He reached out his arm to blow him back, but Lukas was ready this time. He lowered his center of gravity and braced his knees. The force bent him backwards, but he did not move. Lukas ran forward with all his energy. "No! You can't!" The boy shouted, trying to stop Lukas, but he ignored him. He blocked the pedestal, but it was useless. Lukas ran right into the hologram and reached his arm through it. He slammed the device down into the hole in the pedestal. "No!" The boy screamed and the hologram exploded into a million points of light that quickly dissolved.
The ground beneath Lukas' feet began to shake. It pushed Lukas up against the pedestal, and he held on to stay on his feet. He looked down and saw that the drawings on the pedestal were beginning to glow brighter and brighter. The glowing signs began to give off a force similar to what the boy had used. It blew Lukas back onto the floor where from there he saw the glowing get even brighter. The glowing then subsided and only the outlines on the stone were glowing. The rumbling subsided as well and as suddenly as the rumbling stopped, tall beams of light shot from the signs and through the roof. The beams of light were so bright Lukas couldn't look. Along with the light came a high pitched squealing noise. It hurt Lukas' ears to just sit there. It didn't last long though, both the noise and the light subsided within a few seconds.
When Lukas opened his eyes, everything was the way it was before. The roof still intact and the only light was coming from the open doorway. But he was still there, in this strange world. It didn't get him anywhere. Now his eyes and ears hurt but he didn't get anything that could help him. Lukas pulled himself to his feet. "Jeez, I really should work on not getting pushed around so much" he thought.
He walked back towards the pedestal, but something was wrong. It was blank. Nothing was on the face of the pedestal, but the device he put into it sat on top of it in the center. Not a single mark or dent was in the stone. It had all disappeared in the light. Lukas picked up the device and looked at it sitting in the palm of his hand. The screen in the center of the device lit up. A voice began to speak to Lukas through the device.
"Lukas Nonaki, you have arrived in the Digital world. Welcome. You have just released the Digivices, one of which you are now holding. This is your Digivice. It will guide you through this world and help you retrieve your partner." The vice was soft and feminine.
Lukas was completely beside himself when he heard this. He knew immediately it would take some time to learn what she meant. He barely even knew what was going on, or what he was in store for.